California Insider

A Weblog by
Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub

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September 19, 2003

Every planet on Earth

Gray Davis in his first term famously said that he thought the Legislature's job was to implement his vision. People have been asking him ever since what his vision is. He was asked again Wednesday night at his "town hall" forum with a friendly audience in Sacramento. He fumbled the question terribly with some much-quoted remarks about people from "every planet" settling in California. Below I have transcribed the entire answer. While it got better, and there are glimpses of some thought about the nature of California, he still, after nearly 30 years in state government and five as governor, has great trouble succinctly stating his view of where California is today and where he'd like to take it. Here is the full quote:

"My vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every planet on the earth in this state, ah, we have the sons and daughters of people from every planet, of every country on earth, in this state. We are about 50 years ahead of the rest to America. We have no ethnic majority any more. I want to prove we cannot just survive, we can succeed. Let me tell you why. Most of the of folks that come here are the sons and daughters of middle class parents someplace else, they are enterprising, hard working, and they are able to attract capital from whatever country they came from into whatever business they’re doing. And that creates jobs for folks that are already here, gives them opportunity. And that’s why I want to make sure education is open everybody, that we have scholarships for kids who get a B-average in their school and if they have financial challenges then we’ll pay for all the academic costs of any public college they can get admitted to on their own merit. That wasn’t the law before I became governor. It’s the law now. It’s a tremendous motivator for young people. It is also a way in which a teacher can motivate a young child who doesn’t have two nickels to their name. Because it doesn’t matter, if they get a B-average. I am very excited about this state. It has great opportunities. They say California rides point on America. Some things we do we do really well. Some thing we do not do as well. But I want to prove we can succeed, big time."